Michael Sayman said he had no intention of leaving Meta.
He started working for the tech juggernaut as a youngster, transitioning from early consumer product facing work to executive leadership positions that influenced the way hundreds of millions of people communicate online.
Michael said he took it day by day, not giving much thought for how his career would evolve and less about what the greatest use for his time was.
Over the past year, however, that all changed.
Sayman, who most recently worked for Meta’s Superintelligence Labs division, claims that the choice came with an awakening spurred by lengthy discussions with Whop founder Steven Schwartz.
With Steven, titles and pay were not the topics of discussion.
Instead, they discussed leverage, timing, and what product capabilities exist outside the constraints of large platforms, enough to galvanize Sayman’s creative energies enough that it became clear where his future was.
“I loved working with Zuckerberg and everyone and everything I’ve learned over the years. I’m just really excited about the opportunity of bringing all of that, all of those learnings and experience, to helping Whop become an incredible product,” Sayman said.
Sayman’s departure comes at a time when a growing number of long-term Big Tech workers are reevaluating where they can make a difference, and now that smaller teams are getting access to tools that formerly needed enormous resources, there is not the same need to be tied to a huge organization. Further, impact at smaller organizations where creative flexibility and transcending the traditional models are always the premiums can be more outsized.
According to Sayman: “I’ve been trying to think about when’s the opportunity to do something big, and this came. I just thought, I don’t know, I don’t know, kind of going back and forth on it. And at the end of the day, the opportunity just aligned in a way that I couldn’t say no.
At Whop, a platform that helps people run online businesses, Sayman will join the company as President of Product Ecosystems, overseeing product, engineering, and design across its platform.
The role marks a move from specialized, yet somewhat capped leadership inside massive organizations to broad operational ownership and macro potential within a fast-growing startup.
Further, as Sayman elaborates “I think now is a unique time when startups and new companies are able to break into larger audiences in a way that maybe wasn’t possible for a few years. It’s just such a unique time for that” and under his leadership, Whop seems primed to lead this new order.
Read more:
Why Michael Sayman Is Leaving Meta After More Than a Decade To Grow The New Startup Whop